A day seldom passes without any exposure to the term artificial intelligence (AI). But when our survey team conceptualized this topic, we were stunned to learn that there wasn’t much publicly available information that documented end users’ perspectives on the impact of AI on organizations’ cybersecurity efforts.

So, we’re pleased to share our comprehensive findings — and help answer the critical question: What value does AI bring to cybersecurity?

The Ponemon Institute 2018 Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Cyber-Security Study, sponsored by IBM Security, includes detailed and high-level cybersecurity discoveries, as well as a comprehensive look at the impact of AI technologies on application security testing. Here are our top 10 key findings from the study.

1. AI Could Help Cut Costs
For organizations across a wide variety of industries and geographies, the estimated average cost of addressing potential cyber exploits without AI is more than $3 million. Companies who are using AI, by contrast, spent an average of $814,873 on the same threats. Thus, a company can potentially save an average of $2.5 million in operating costs by utilizing AI technology.

2. AI May Minimize Data Breaches
When asked about the estimated likelihood of a data breach affecting more than 10,000 sensitive customer or consumer records at their organizations, 40 percent of respondents estimated that the probability was greater than 20 percent if they didn’t leverage AI technologies. However, a mere 2 percent of respondents estimated that the likelihood was greater than 20 percent when AI technologies were leveraged.

3. Organizations Plan to Increase AI Investment
Organizations expect to increase their investment in AI. As AI technology matures, investments will grow, according to 61 percent of respondents.

4. AI May Improve Productivity
Sixty percent of respondents were positive about the ability of AI-based security technologies to improve the productivity of their IT security personnel.